"One of the first influencers" in Forstern
Created: 11/30/2022, 11:00 am
By: Veronica Power
Konrad Huber from the Singkreis, Beate Pritschet, Mayor Rainer Streu and his deputy Simona Loupal also congratulated Henry Pritschet (centre) on his milestone birthday.
On this occasion, Pritschet was made an honorary member of the Forstern singing circle.
© Municipality
The community, associations and friends celebrate honorary citizen Henry Pritschet on the occasion of his 80th birthday.
Forstern – He is a driving force in local club life and can look back on decades of commitment to the Forstern singing circle, Volksbildungswerk and VdK.
And he is a role model for others because he shows that physical disabilities are no reason for social exclusion.
Henry Pritschet, honorary citizen of Forstern, who has held the Citizen's Medal since 2008, has now celebrated his 80th birthday.
The community and clubs cheered him on in the small gym.
Pritschet is also known beyond the community borders because he has traveled to more than 60 countries and given lectures about many of his adventures.
The fact that he has been disabled since contracting polio as a small child has never stopped him: Pritschet is now traveling around the world in a wheelchair.
He was born in Sulzberg near Kempten in Allgäu as the third of four brothers.
At the age of two he contracted polio and could no longer walk.
Although he soon took the first steps again, he has been limping ever since.
As a result of the disease, his growth was also stunted.
One side is more severely affected, resulting in spinal misalignment during growth.
Nevertheless, Pritschet never let himself be slowed down.
After high school, he learned English, French and Spanish at a private language school in Regensburg.
In 1962 he finally came to Forstern – to the Eicher tractor factory.
He made friends through music and thus came to sing in the Eicher works choir.
Pritschet stayed with Eicher for ten years, after which he worked for Stahlgruber in Munich until he retired.
The travel fever had gripped the young man in 1966.
His first adventure took him to Afghanistan.
"After that I tasted blood, from then on I traveled every year," says Pritschet: first with other people, then with his wife Beate, later alone again.
It went through the Soviet Union, to the Sahara and to Syria, to Yemen and to Jordan.
When walking became worse from his mid-40s, he only traveled with Grabo-Tours, a provider of wheelchair trips.
Last summer we went to Malaysia.
On arrival in Kuala Lumpur, Pritschet experienced something that has never happened to him in all that time: his wheelchair didn't arrive, "and I haven't got it back to this day," he says.
However, there were wheelchairs for hire at the airports and hotels – “I borrowed twelve in all, but I carried them with humor” – so the group could continue their journey.
So it went to Borneo to see the orangutans, a highlight of the trip for Pritschet.
The singing group was in charge of inviting to the big birthday party in the small school gym.
Companions, friends and acquaintances came, three choirs serenaded the celebrant, “and I was showered with presents.
I really enjoyed it, I was really happy,” says Pritschet and is still touched, also by the speeches.
Former Mayor Georg Els, for example, spoke of an "exciting, varied, committed, colorful life".
One could confidently call the celebrant “one of the first influencers in our community”, because influencers are people who use their strong presence and reputation to promote a lifestyle, for example.
Els quoted from his eulogy for the awarding of the citizen's medal to Pritschet on November 14, 2008: It was not only the diverse voluntary commitment shown over decades that was appreciated.
"A sign of courage should also be given to all physically disabled fellow citizens and it should be expressed that physical disabilities do not have to be a reason for social exclusion and resignation".
Pritschet has been involved in the village community, clubs and associations for decades - despite his disability.
He acts "like a lighthouse in our society" that "radiates positively on us".
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Mayor Rainer Streu quoted the seafarer Joseph Billings: “Be like a postage stamp.
Stick to one thing until you reach your goal.” And Pritschet has always stuck to it like a postage stamp: “You have persistently pursued your professional and private goals.
No matter how great the challenges or how difficult the times were sometimes.”
Bernd Vogt congratulated on behalf of the Singkreis.
He emphasized that Pritschet's CV had "very impressed and fascinated" him.
He is the "polyglot world traveller", but also deeply rooted in Forstern.
This combination of two lifelines is even more impressive if you include Pritschet's almost lifelong walking disability.
Vogt specifically addressed Pritschet's commitment to the Singkreis, to which he had belonged since 1965 - at that time still as the Eicher works choir.
Pritschet was already 1st and 2nd chairman, secretary since 2003, which was changed to managing director in 2019, and is still an active singer.
And as such, so Vogt hopes, he should support the Singkreis for many years to come.
Cheers to the celebrant: the singers of the Forstern singing circle celebrated Henry Pritschet © Gemeinde
